Day 2548 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.
1 John 1:10 NIV
For a couple of days now we've been discussing the importance of telling others the truth. It's what we're called to do. It's what we should want to do. It's what we should want others to do for us. But it seems like lying has always and will always be the most common path. It seems like so many people just prefer the comfort of lies, and if you fall into that line of thinking then maybe you just assume that everyone else prefers that false sense of comfort as well.
But then something hit me this morning. What if telling other people the truth is so rare because we're not even telling ourselves the truth? What if we've settled for the false comfort of a life full of lies? What if we've drifted so far away from the truth that we don't even realize the truth isn't in us? Maybe, just maybe, the underlying issue, as often the case, starts with us.
I know that we like to hear that we're doing good enough. We like to think that we're doing our best. We don't want to consider this possibility that we're not perfect. We don't want to entertain the idea that we need to do some serious work in our lives. We don't want to undergo changes or face the effort and humility that it takes to actually grow and improve. So we convince ourselves that our problems, our weaknesses, our sins aren't really that bad.
We lie to ourselves. We hide from the truth because the truth doesn't let us get by with the things that we want to ignore or avoid. The truth forces us to wake up, open our eyes to what's really going on, and get to work on fixing the wrongs in our lives. But as we've been talking about, complacency is far more comfortable and takes far less work. So we settle for living a lie because we're afraid of the pride-shattering reality that the truth conveys.
In a world where the truth has been vilified to the point of being offensive and unacceptable, it's hard to not start believing some of that junk. It's hard to not start letting ourselves and those around us slide as we see everyone else doing just that. It's hard to walk a different direction, do what so many hate, and find this inner determination to do what's right in a place where right is often seen as wrong.
But living a lie helps nobody. Lying to ourselves helps nothing. It just keeps us living in the dark as a shadow of who we could be. Easy? Yeah. Comfortable? Sure. Worth it? Not even close. Honesty starts with us. It's not going to be fun to take those hard looks into who we are and what we're doing. It's not a good feeling to realize and acknowledge just how far we've gone in the wrong direction and how much work it's going to take to climb back to the right side of truth. But what other choice do we have?
Friends, cut the nonsense. All of us have things we need to fix. All of us have things in our lives that we can be doing better. All of us have things in our lives that shouldn't be there at all. We can keep avoiding those issues and struggles but avoiding them only lets them stay in our lives. Don't settle for that. Lies are easier. Lies will always be more common as the king of this world is the father of lies. But we're called to be something different. Something better.
Christ came to earth to help us see just how far we’d fallen. He came to help us see the very real danger and the very real consequence of our sins. If we keep telling ourselves that our problems aren’t that bad then we’re only questioning His purpose on this earth. If we allow ourselves to believe that we’re not that messed up then we must think the cross was for everyone else. If we think we’re doing just fine, then the Bible must be a fairy tale. God’s word says that all have fallen short. Is He right, or are we?
If we're going to consider ourselves Christians, then the lying stops now. If we keep living in the dark, entertaining falsehood, and allowing ourselves to ignore our problems then we're only choosing to stay separated from God. We don't have to. He's ready and willing to welcome us back, help us get to work, and help us get things sorted out. But lies only prevent that. Lies only come between us. We cannot let it happen anymore. We're only missing out on the true freedom that's found only in God's truth.
Comments
Post a Comment